In my Defense it was one of the Hellbille stories that gave me the idea. But the short story is city fight double blind rules and he walked into 2 Devastator heavy tanks at about 4 hexs. 3 AC 20 and several inferno srms later his Caesar 3R is missing it's right torso, is on fire and his pilot took an nap from falling and the gauss rifle exploding. Yeah since then tanks die first for him.
That one's not me, actually, though I've walked into my share of ambushes before. (I hate the Caesar, so I'd have been content to dispose of one to spring a trap!).
Actually for me, infantry die first. After some bad experiences, I do not suffer the crunchies to live- armored or not. For proof, two of the designs I've sneaked into the books over the years are the Men Shen E and Shoden (LBX)- go take a look and see how I feel about infantry. ;)
But. Yeah. Plasma, let's talk the rifle itself. If you like PPCs, you'll like the plasma rifle. You lose the ammo-less perk (though at least it's inert ammo and won't explode), you gain the ability to do extra heat or damage depending on what you're shooting. That's a pretty nifty trade-off actually, as long as you bring a couple of tons of ammo. It's a nasty customer- one is concerning, two on a unit is just mean. (Attempts to mount four on an Annihilator, by the way, resulted in a very overheated but fun walking war-crime.)
That said, I actually prefer the Clan flavor. That's not a popular opinion amongst many players- after all, the cannon doesn't do damage to Mechs at all, so who cares? Well shut the hell up, hypothetical person I'm arguing with, and listen: At half of the weight of the rifle, I'm doing 2D6 heat. Two plasma cannons means 4D6 heat to a Mech, rather than 10 damage and 1D6 heat, and depending on the Mech that can be crippling. (Note that there's a cap on how much heat you can cause per turn, but if you're hitting that cap you still are having a pretty great day at the gaming table). Call that somewhere around 12-14 heat added to a target on average with a salvo- not many Mechs appreciate that kind of heat muckery.
BUT. It isn't Mechs that make the plasma cannon (or even the rifle) fun to beat on things with. It's EVERYTHING ELSE. Infantry, vehicles, structures (oh man, STRUCTURES), if it doesn't track heat you should totally smack it with plasma cannons. 3D6 damage PER CANNON- from a three ton weapon (plus ammo). That is fantastic stuff, people. Slapping infantry- even the toughest battle armor- with wads of burning styrofoam and watching them run around waving their little arms until they expire, that's as fun as Battletech gets. NOTE: Do not try this against Golems or Salamanders, as they seem to be more confused by the burning wads than anything. But I have put an Alacorn down with a Warhawk packing three plasmas, and it was very therapeutic to watch the poor thing disintegrate.
There are weapons in Battletech from recent years I'm not a big fan of. The MML is a good weapon, but bland- it removes a lot of the tough choices from the game when you can just always pick the right missile for the job. I'm not a fan of the LAC, nor the chemical laser. But plasma? I adore plasma weapons. You should too, because the only way I can figure someone doesn't absolutely adore plasma is if you've never used it before. So... do that.
